Good evening.
I don't know if any of you nice folk out there play on Ladbrokes at all, but I feel obliged to air my views concerning the slippery slope which I believe them to be on.
What is one of the most important things you learn when starting out on your poker adventure?
Bankroll.
Never play above your bankroll. So why then, a few months ago, did Ladbrokes remove their popular 5/10c cash tables?
I emailed asking the very same question. Their response was to inform me that the 5/10c tables had been 'temporarily' removed due to reconstruction, sorry for the inconvenience. To date, they have not returned. Misinformation.
Today, the 15/30c cash tables have also been removed, adding insult to injury, and forcing the 'real' players to either play above their bankroll or change sites altogether.
Six months ago, Ladbrokes was hugely popular due to the loyalty they showed their customers in the form of a Weekly Raked Hands Freeroll worth $100,000. Basically, you had to play 500 raked hands within a week to qualify for a seat in the freeroll. Every Saturday, at 6.05pm, there were over 1500 players in that freeroll. Then suddenly, they stopped it. No explanation, no nothing. Finished, finito. The cash game community were outraged and rightly asked for an explanation. We were promptly informed that it was a marketing decision and that was that. Several hundered players left to play elsewhere, I stuck around. No loyalty scheme worth it's salt ever returned. In today's widespread online poker market that's a huge error of judgement, in my opinion.
I eamiled Ladbrokes again expressing my concerns, They simply weren't interested. My email was apparently 'forwarded to the marketing division', terminology which I can now interpret as meaning 'deleted'.
I have 8 different poker sites on my PC. I just checked the traffic figures on each. Guess which one has by far and away the lowest number of players connected? Ladbrokes.
Now, in their wisdom, Ladbrokes are advertising a 'make over' to their site. The best tag line I can think of is;
"The All New Ladbrokes - With Gimmicks".
A chat facility in the lobby. Great idea.
Change the colours of the graphics on your chosen table. Brilliant.
A calendar built in to the site. How helpful.
A quick bank (whereby you can re-deposit without leaving the table). Irrelevant to players with bankrolls.
A buddy list. Gee, thanks.
Auto rebuys. That's helpful.
Fold and show (show your folded hand at a showdown).
All that and yet they take the micro limit tables and the loyalty away. I'm so close to withdrawing my money and deleting Ladbrokes from my PC.
Thanks for listening.
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